‘palestine’ Olympics Team Sparks Renewed Controversy

With the opening ceremonies for the Summer Olympics less than six weeks away, the controversy over an officially recognized team from “Palestine” has sparked new protests.

A delegation of athletes from “Palestine,” as the team is designated in the Atlanta Committee on the Olympics Games’ official publications, is competing in the summer games.

The Anti-Defamation League was protested the choice of nomenclature to the International Olympic Committee.

In a letter to the committee, ADL National Director Abraham Foxman said it would prefer that the delegation be referred to as “the Palestinian team” rather then as athletes “from Palestine.”

“There is no State of Palestine,” Foxman wrote. “We believe it is important that the proper terminology be used when referring to the Palestinian delegation.”

First reported in the Atlanta Jewish Times in September 1994, the issue resurfaced this month when the Olympic committee began to distribute guides for the games.

Palestinian participation hits a raw nerve for some Jewish observers.

A Palestine Liberation Organization faction had taken credit for the massacre of 11 Israeli athletes at the 1972 Munich Olympics.

Palestinians are allowed to participate in the Olympics under Article 33 of the Olympic Convention, which stipulates that “the term `country’ in the Olympic Convention means every country, state territory or part of a territory.”

An Interim Agreement, signed in 1993 by Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization, dictates that neither group can attempt to change the current status of the West Bank and Gaza until negotiations on the two areas’ permanent status are completed. However, Israel has already turned over portions of the West Bank and Gaza territories to Palestinian jurisdiction.

U.S. and Atlanta Olympic Committee officials were not available for comment.